by Raymond Lee
Sky thought about what he was saying and tried to place herself in his position. Her mother had always told her and Raven to place themselves in other people’s shoes when they didn’t understand why people did certain things. Sara was a friend, but she had been bitten. Sky knew how the virus spread, that once you were bitten that was it for you. When the outbreak first started every newscast urged viewers to keep far away from anyone who even showed symptoms of the virus. She’d heard reports of people turning quickly and immediately attacking the people around them, their own families. She’d seen a glimpse of one of these attacks on a highway before Raven had stopped allowing her to watch the news. She couldn’t see Sara doing that to her, but she could see the thing from her dream with its milky white eyes and gray-tinted skin doing it. If she had been in Torres’s shoes with a little girl to protect she thought she might have made the same decision, but she wasn’t sure she’d have pulled the trigger. She would have been too afraid. She might have left Sara outside to suffer, which would have been worse.
“You were brave to do what you did.”
“Bravery had nothing to do with it. I was terrified she would draw more of those things than I could handle or find a way into the house, a way to you. I had a split second to act and I just let instinct take over. My instinct since I saw you running down the street that day has always been to protect you, no matter what that involves.”
“What if it was me?” Sky asked, remembering Sara’s message in the dream.
“What?”
“What if it was me who was bitten? Would you shoot me?”
Torres stared at her for a long while, silence stretching between them as his eyes glistened. Despite the stubble, she could see the indentation in his cheek from where he clenched his teeth together.
“Torres?”
“I don’t want to answer that question.”
“You would do it. You would shoot me.”
“No.” He shook his head, slow. “If I was bitten I would take my own life before I had a chance to hurt you, but if you were bitten…”
“Would you leave me to die alone? Would you let me turn into one of those things?”
“No. My sweet Sky will never be a monster.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before opening them. “I don’t want to answer this question. I don’t want to say it out loud.”
“It’s all right if you have to kill me one day, Torres. If I get bitten I don’t want to turn into one of those monsters. I want you to shoot me if I get bitten and I don’t want you to blame yourself. I want you to survive and help other people.”
“I can’t do that, pequenuela. I promise I will not let you turn into a zombie, but if I have to shoot you I’m taking the next bullet and I’m walking you to heaven’s gate myself.”
“I would never forgive you for that. I would hate you forever.”
“Pequenuela?”
“Promise me. Promise me that if something bad happens to me you will do everything you can to stay alive and help others. Promise me.”
He gave her a slow nod of agreement. “I promise.”
Sky crawled up the bed and scooched in next to him. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight against him.
“I’m not mad at you for shooting Sara. I understand why you had to. You did the right thing.”
“Thank you, pequenuela. I needed to hear that.”
Sky watched out the kitchen window as Torres shoveled the last of the dirt over the hole he’d lowered Sara’s body into and wiped the sweat from his brow with the sleeve of the flannel shirt he’d found in the parents’ bedroom closet. She would have been outside acting as lookout while he took care of Sara’s remains but the privacy fence surrounding the back yard offered him enough security he felt safe going out alone. Sky didn’t want to be near the grave, or more importantly, the body going into the grave. He’d wrapped Sara in a bedsheet before carrying what was left of her body to the backyard so she didn’t have to see how badly the zombies had torn into her before and after her death, and staying inside kept her safe from the smell of decay. The zombies were foul enough. She imagined Sara would be just as bad, if not worse, and that wasn’t the way she wanted to remember her.
Torres knelt by the grave and said a few words, bowed his head and stayed there a moment before getting up and carrying the shovel back to where he’d found it along the back of the house. It was no longer in his hands when he entered through the back door. “It’s done. Are you sure you didn’t want to say a few words or just visit? The fence is pretty high and I didn’t see anything creeping close by out there. The front is another story.”
“I’m sure.” Sky leaned back against the sink with her arms folded. She didn’t care for funerals or in this case, simple burials. She hadn’t wanted to go to her parents’ funeral but her great-aunt had made her and Raven go. She said not doing so was disrespectful and would send the message that their parents were awful and unloved. Full of that guilt, she had no choice but to comply. Seeing her mother and father in caskets was a horrible memory she’d give anything to lose. “What’s happening out front?”
Torres tilted his head in the direction of the living room as he crossed the floor, indicating for Sky to follow. They looked out the living room window, carefully peeking through the blinds to see zombies shuffling around a tree across the street.
“Why are they all hanging around that tree?”
“Something must be up it.” Torres closed the blinds. “Probably a cat or a squirrel or something.”
“They eat animals?”
“I think they eat anything alive and moving.”
Sky’s eyes started to water as she thought about whatever furry creature was up the tree. “We have to help it.”
Torres placed his hands on his hips and looked down at her. “Sky, I love animals too. I really do, but I’m not risking your life to save a cat or squirrel or chipmunk or whatever is up there. I’m sure whatever it is it’s small and fast and can probably leap right past them.”
“Then why is it stuck in a tree?”
“Why are cats ever stuck in trees?” He shrugged. “I think they like the attention.”
“Torres!” Sky fixed him with a hard narrow-eyed stare.
He lowered himself down to his haunches and stared right back at eye level. “I am not risking your life to save some cat. Cats are assholes. I’d probably get bitten trying to help it and the thing would hiss at me and saunter away without a thank you.”
“What if it’s a squirrel?”
“If it is it probably has rabies.”
Sky folded her arms and stomped her foot.
“Throwing a hissy fit won’t get me to go out there either.” He stood, ruffling the hair on top of her head as he did. “We’re stuck in here until they move away and we can get to the car. Sara found food in the kitchen yesterday and stacked it all on the counter. There’s some Pork and Beans, peas, peas and carrots, hominy, lots of stuff you don’t really have to heat up in order to eat. She found cereal too. What do you want to eat?”
“Nothing.” Sky went back to the window and peeked through the blinds. She had no appetite, couldn’t even think about eating while some poor animal hid in a tree above hungry monsters chomping their teeth at it. “I’m not eating anything as long as that poor animal is stuck in that tree.”
“You don’t even know what that poor animal is.”
“It’s probably something cute and cuddly and sweet.”
“Yeah,” Torres said, standing behind her, “or it could be something that would totally eat your face off.”
“If it was would it be stuck up in a tree hiding from the zombies?” she asked, feeling pretty smart. “It’s not eating their faces off.”
“Yeah, well, look at their faces. Who’d want to eat those? They’re clearly past their expiration date.”
“Ugh, Torres.” Sky smacked the palm of her hand against her forehead and groaned. She took a deep breath to calm herself and keep from yelling,
knowing to do so was dangerous. She wanted to help the animal in the tree but not by endangering them. She knew Torres was right to be careful, but she couldn’t just let the animal get eaten. It was time to pull out the big guns. She turned and faced Torres. “Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do—”
“Sky.”
“Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it.”
“You need to stop this right now.”
“Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it.”
“Sky, I said stop.” Torres stood over her, arms folded across his chest, feet apart in a firm stance, mouth a straight, unamused line and dark eyes burning like hot coals.
Sky matched the stance and the fierce, unrelenting eyes, grabbed his ears and pulled him down to her level. “Doooooooooo it.”
“You know I could die, right?”
She let go of his ears and stepped back. She looked out the window, watched the zombies shuffle around the tree, reaching up for whatever was hidden in its branches, and bit her lip as her eyes burned. She hated choosing between the animal and her friend but there was no competition between the two. “I don’t want you to die.”
“I know. I’m sorry, Sky. That’s the way of the world right now. We have to look out for ourselves and just pray for everyone else.”
The wetness building in her eyes spilled over. “This world sucks.”
“Yeah, it does, but I’ll get you through it. Now, please go and eat something. I’m going to pack some things into that backpack you found so you’ll have your own bug out bag. Once we get a clear route to the Mustang we’re out of here. Winter’s coming.”
“Sonofabitch!”
Sky woke up to the sound of Torres cursing, followed by the slam of the hood. She sat up in the backseat to see him standing in front of the car, cursing up a storm in Spanish. She only knew the Spanish words were curse words because they sounded bad, even in another language. They’d pulled over along the side of the road somewhere off the interstate, and it was still daylight so she hadn’t been asleep very long. They’d left that morning after something had attracted the attention of the zombies outside, drawing them away from the tree and what had turned out to be a cat hiding there. Torres refused to track it down to bring with them after it jumped down from the tree and fled the scene, but they’d left a little food out for it in case it came back through the area.
“The car crapped out,” Torres said, opening the back door. He grabbed the two backpacks, handing the L.L. Bean bag to Sky. “I made sure we each have the basic necessities in these but let’s cram as much food and water as we can into them before we go. Whatever we can’t carry will have to be left in the car. Fill your coat pockets too.”
Sky nodded and started rooting through bags of food they’d scavenged, stuffing her backpack to capacity and jamming the smaller items like granola bars into her coat pockets. “Where are we?’
“Still in Colorado. There was a roadblock on the interstate so I had to get off and then the car died, the piece of shit.” He glanced over at Sky’s backpack as he crammed more stuff into his own. “Are you going to be able to carry that?”
Sky lifted the backpack, straining. “Oops.”
He shook his head and grabbed it, adjusting the straps on it and his own. “I got these. You can carry a plastic bag with food in it. That’ll help us pack more anyway.” He slid her backpack on, the straps adjusted so it fit snugly between his shoulder blades, then slid his arms through the straps he’d loosened on his own. After a few adjustments it fit securely under her bag. Both of the bags were overstuffed as much as the material would allow.
“Isn’t that heavy?”
“Oh, it’s about to get better,” he said. “Come on out. Grab my bat for me.”
Sky grabbed a plastic shopping bag full of chips, nuts, and various types of packaged foods, scooped up the baseball bat, and climbed out of the car.
“Don’t forget your gun,” Torres reminded her, opening the trunk.
She walked around to the front, opened the passenger side door and retrieved her gun from the glovebox. She slid it into her holster and walked to the back to find Torres stringing a length of nylon rope through gallon jugs of water. “You’re not going to carry those, are you?”
He grinned at her. “Why not? I haven’t had a real workout since this whole thing started. I have to keep this machine in top shape, and we’ll need water more than anything.”
“You have two backpacks full of canned goods and other stuff on your back already.”
“I lift more than this, honey. Besides, we don’t have much choice.” He cut the rope with his knife, tied it off and looped it over his head and shoulder, three gallons of water hanging on his right side. He repeated the process with two more gallon jugs of water, that rope slung over his head and angled across his body so the jugs rested along his left side.
“You look like a pack mule.”
“I feel like one.” He closed the trunk, closed and put away the knife, checked the gun at his lower back, and grabbed his bat. “I’m packing too much to be carrying the map and I don’t want you focused on anything but our surroundings so it’s staying in the pack. As long as we follow the Colorado River we should stay on the right route.”
“What if we run into zombies?”
“Pray that we don’t. I’ll be praying we run across another vehicle that’s drivable.” He looked down at her as they started walking. “How do you know anything about pack mules? You’re nine. I wouldn’t think they were common knowledge to kids.”
“I read.”
“You ever read anything about hotwiring cars?”
“No.”
“Figures.”
“Torres, it’s getting really cold.”
“I know, honey. If we weren’t getting all this exercise we’d probably be frozen.” Torres shifted one of the ropes crossing his body, adjusting the weight of the gallon jugs hanging from him.
They’d been walking for hours and it seemed to be growing colder. Sky’s feet hurt and all she had to carry was one plastic shopping bag of lightweight food. She had no idea how Torres was still going with all he was packing. They both wore coats they’d found in the house they’d stayed in after first entering Colorado, but as the hour grew later, the air picked up more of a chill. They’d gotten back on the interstate, Torres feeling it would be safer for them to stay away from residential areas while on foot, but the lack of buildings or trees around them did nothing to protect them from the icy wind.
“Do you think it will snow here?”
“In Colorado? I’m pretty sure the farther North we get the more likely snow is. I always wanted to see snow, but I thought if I ever did it would be on a vacation to some cabin somewhere. Someplace with a roaring fire in the chimney and all kinds of comforts. I don’t particularly care to see snow while stranded on foot in the elements.”
“You’ve never seen snow?”
“It didn’t snow in the part of Venezuela where I lived, and it doesn’t snow in California, at least not the parts where I’ve been.”
“Will we be at the base by the time it snows?”
Torres looked over at her and chewed his lip. “I don’t know. I planned on us already being there. We shouldn’t have taken that detour. It cost us some days, and now we’re on foot. I have yet to see a car in condition to drive, and if we do come across one I can only hope I can figure out how to hotwire it. I stole a few cars in my teens, but always ones that some idiot left keys inside.”
“For a gangbanger you’re kind of bad at being a bad guy.”
Torres laughed. “Former gangbanger, sweetheart. Former. I guess it wasn’t really my calling.”
A black figure ambled up ahead. Too far away to be seen clearly, the shuffling gait gave it away as being a zombie. “Torres.”
“I see it.” Torres stopped walking and scanned the area. He pointed his bat toward a clump of cars ahead of them. “Let’s pick up the pace and get to those
cars. If there’s nothing dead or nasty inside I think we can take a break and get some actual rest, even if they’re not drivable.”
“What about the zombie?”
“I’ll take care of it.”
They quickened their step, Sky wincing as her feet cramped from the hours of walking and very few breaks taken. Torres looked down at her, noticed her slight limp, and scooped her up, never dropping the baseball bat.
“You’re carrying too much already, Torres.”
“Silence, pequenuela. I’m all right.”
Torres covered the distance to the cluster of cars that looked to have smashed into each other and lowered Sky to the ground before unloading the water jugs and two backpacks. He let out an audible sigh of relief and rolled his neck and shoulders before checking the cars. There were no bodies in any of them, but one had a lot of blood inside.
“This one seems clean,” Sky said, her face pressed against the rear side window of a Taurus. The back seats were clear. The front had been crumpled in like an accordion but the windshield had avoided any serious damage, just a web-like crack stretching over its entirety. There was blood on the steering wheel and the front seat, but whoever had been injured had apparently been fine enough to walk away from the accident.
Torres pulled up on the back door handle and let out a celebratory whoop when it opened. He glanced over at the zombie headed their way and pushed Sky into the car. “Stay inside the car,” he said before closing the door and raising his baseball bat over his shoulder, in his batter’s stance.
Sky raised onto her knees in the backseat and nibbled at her nails as the zombie drew closer. It was near enough now she could tell it had once been a woman, most likely a businesswoman judging by what was left of the tattered pantsuit she wore. Her feet were bare and looked like they’d been dragged across a bed of nails. Her hair was long, dark and stringy, and her eyes were the same milky white as the other infected. She snarled as she closed in on Torres. He was well within swinging distance but remained still as the woman approached, far too close. Torres should have swung already. A lightbulb went off in Sky’s head and she beat against the window. “It’s just another zombie, Torres! Swing the bat!”
